Findlay City Schools is limiting fan attendance at winter sports contests to the immediate family of the participating athletes.

Families of athletes will be allowed two tickets per game.

Findlay Athletic Director Nate Weihrauch says their goal is to keep the Findlay community safe while still allowing student-athletes to compete.

Governor Mike DeWine recently urged schools to not let any fans attend winter sports because of the surge in COVID cases.

The OHSAA made clear that schools could go with that option of no fans, or to allow family members of the athletes to attend.

Weihrauch says he’s very appreciative of the administration and board of education for letting winter sports proceed, as some school districts have halted sports.

He says they hope to stream home games so the community can still watch in some capacity.

The Findlay boys basketball team is scheduled to play Toledo Whitmer Tuesday night at 7:30 in a game you can hear on WFIN.

Hunters have been having a lot of success during Ohio’s deer-bow season so far.

The harvest rate is up 11 percent from the average over the last three seasons.

Full details are in the following news release from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Ohio’s deer-gun season is Monday, Nov. 30, through Sunday, Dec. 6, as well as Dec. 19-20.

Deer-muzzleloader season is Saturday, Jan. 2, through Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021.

Ohio’s 2020 white-tailed deer archery hunting season has proven to be bountiful for many Buckeye State hunters, with 74,892 deer taken through Wednesday, Nov. 25, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. This represents an 11% increase from the average harvest total from the same date during the past three seasons, which is 67,318.

The top 10 counties for deer taken by archery hunters so far during Ohio’s 2020 archery hunting season include: Coshocton (2,689), Licking (2,232), Tuscarawas (2,146), Ashtabula (2,021), Knox (1,910), Holmes (1,856), Muskingum (1,806), Trumbull (1,748), Guernsey (1,599), and Richland (1,505).

*Hancock County has had 582 deer taken so far while Putnam County has had 351 taken, both increases over last year.

“Ohio’s archery season for white-tailed deer is enjoyed by thousands of hunters,” said Division of Wildlife Chief Kendra Wecker. “We hope you have the chance to get out this fall. The hunting season provides the chance to make cherished memories with family and friends.”

Deer tend to be highly active during October and November because of the breeding season, making these months popular for many Ohio bowhunters. The top five days for bowhunter success so far in 2020 were Saturday, Oct. 31 (4,374 deer checked); Saturday, Nov. 14 (3,995); Saturday, Nov. 7 (3,475); Saturday, Sept. 26 (2,687); and Friday, Nov. 13 (2,552). Participation remains high for all hunters, with 299,573 permits sold or issued through Wednesday, Nov. 24. Ohio’s deer-archery season began in September and is open until Feb. 7, 2021.

Ohio is a popular hunting destination for many out-of-state hunters. The top five states for purchasing a nonresident hunting license in Ohio include: Pennsylvania (6,954 permits sold), Michigan (4,515), West Virginia (3,321), North Carolina (2,955), and New York (2,335).

Hancock Public Health released the county’s latest COVID-19 numbers on Monday.

The agency on Monday reported that there has been a total of 2,723 cases since the pandemic started, up from 2,459 last Wednesday.

The number of active cases dropped by 14, down to 323.

Active cases are patients currently under quarantine or isolation.

Two more Hancock County residents have died from the virus, and the death toll as of Monday stands at 42.

34 people are currently hospitalized in Hancock County with COVID-19.

Statewide, there have been more than 421,000 cases and more than 6,400 deaths since the pandemic started.

The City of Findlay Street Department is prepared to clear the streets of however much snow Mother Nature drops on us.

The city has a total of 24 snow plows that will be deployed once the snow starts sticking to the roads.

The plows will hit the main thoroughfares first like Main Street, Tiffin Avenue and Broad Avenue.

Then they’ll clear secondary streets and after that they’ll clear as many residential streets as they can.

Drivers are being reminded to slow down and allow plenty of stopping distance when driving in snow and icy conditions.

Findlay will be under a Winter Weather Advisory until 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Office says a motorcyclist was injured when he struck a deer.

The crash happened Sunday night in Union Township on County Road 54, south of Township Road 79.

The sheriff’s office says Anthony Culver, 30, of Rawson, was driving his Harley north on County Road 54 when he hit a deer that was in the roadway.

Culver was thrown from the bike and came to rest alongside the road.

He was taken to Blanchard Valley Hospital.

The sheriff’s office says Culver was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.

The Leipsic Fire Department says it responded to Smokin’ B’s Bar & Grill at 125 East Main Street for a structure fire at around 8:30 Sunday morning.

Firefighters were met with heavy smoke and fire in the rear area of the business.

The fire department says, with the help of mutual aid, they were able to contain the fire to the building of origin.

The building to the east, Dulle Chiropractic, sustained minor smoke and water damage.

Smokin’ B’s said on their Facebook page that the business is a total loss, but thankfully no one was injured, and they will be back.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the business recover.

Some businesses in Columbus Grove were recently destroyed in a fire. Read about that here. 

(picture courtesy of Norma Schroeder – Facebook)

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory that includes Findlay and Hancock County.

The advisory goes from 7 a.m. Monday to 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Forecasters say 2 to 5 inches of snow is possible as well as gusty winds in excess of 30 miles per hour.

The National Weather Service says rain will transition to snow Monday morning along the I-75 corridor and continue to expand east through the morning, and snow will diminish from west to east during the day Tuesday.

People should plan for slippery driving conditions.

The Ohio State football game at Illinois that was scheduled for Saturday will not take place.

Ohio State says it canceled the game after further positive COVID-19 tests were discovered in their program.

The university previously revealed that head coach Ryan Day had tested positive and wouldn’t be attending the game.

All team-related football activities are now on pause.

The decision to cancel and pause was made jointly by Director of Athletics Gene Smith, University President Kristina M. Johnson, head team physician Dr. Jim Borchers and in consultation with the Big Ten Conference.

“We have continued to experience an increase in positive tests over the course of this week,” Smith said.

“The health, safety and well-being of our student-athlete is our main concern, and our decisions on their welfare will continue to be guided by our medical staff.”

Ohio State says the program will resume team activities when medical staff determines it is safe to do so based on protocols established by the Big Ten Conference.

Ohio State is 4-0 on the season. They have Michigan State and Michigan remaining on the schedule.

The Big Ten title game is set for December 19th.

The City of Findlay’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony was held virtually this year because of the pandemic.

The ceremony was posted to the city’s Facebook page on Friday night.

The tree was already lit up on Thanksgiving Day and some people could be seen taking pictures in front of it that night while walking off some of that turkey and pie.

Mayor Christina Muryn said, although the traditional ceremony couldn’t be held this year, she still hopes people will enjoy the tree and patronize downtown businesses, especially on Small Business Saturday.

Despite challenges presented by the pandemic, StoneBridge Church still served up hundreds of Thanksgiving meals again this year.

“After 15-plus years of this going on we weren’t going to let anything stop us this year,” said Reverend Michael Wise, Lead Pastor of StoneBridge Church.

The church usually puts on a big meal inside its auditorium but that wasn’t possible this year because of the pandemic.

Even though they couldn’t do the dine-in portion of their annual Thanksgiving Day Community Meal this year, Wise says they still ended up serving more than 2,000 meals through drive-thru and delivery.

He says the meal was more important than ever this year.

“We want to encourage people that there’s hope, there’s life, there’s joy to be had and we hope that this is just the beginning of sharing that through our community.”